Army of women make impact on labor laws

History enthusiasts need not look any further than the backyards of their southeast Kansas homes for historical treasures.
As part of the Iola Reads program and the Kansas Humanities Council, Linda O’Nelio Knoll, an educator and historian, was at the Iola Public Library Tuesday night to present a brief history of coal mines in southeast Kansas and the significant impact coal miner’s wives, daughters, sisters, grandmothers and sweethearts had when they marched against unfair labor practices.
Kansas,  nicknamed the “Little Balkans,” at the turn of the century, was a booming railroad and coal mining industry. Men were recruited from all over Europe to come and work in the mines. Mining camps would eventually be filled with families from France, Sweden, Italy, England, Germany and Eastern Europe. 
Ten to 12 hour days were considered an honest day’s work, cheap child labor was beneficial for coal mine owners and workman’s comp was unheard of.
Working conditions were hazardous and mining accidents were so common that “goodbyes in the mornings were somber,” Knoll said.
The men would have to work on their knees or on their sides because the mines were only three or four feet tall. Knoll said if a man died in the mines the next option was to send in the next oldest son — 12 years old or above.
By the time the 1920s came around, women of coal miners had had enough of seeing their loved ones sent off daily to poor working conditions without the promise of a safe return home.
Knoll told a story of a woman, Mother Jones, who “described herself as not a humanitarian but a hell raiser,” Knoll said.
Mother Jones found herself in the midst of strikes, rallies and marches — oftentimes being among the movement’s organizers. 
Knoll said Mother Jones, along with countless number of other women, was arrested quite often. The first time she was arrested it was for speaking openly about the unfair labor conditions on a public street.
“When the police officer asked her if she had a permit to be speaking on the streets, Mother Jones said she did. The police officer then asked her who gave her the permit. Mother Jones replied ‘Patrick Henry, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,’” Knoll said.
Women like Mother Jones stood shoulder to shoulder with their husbands, kicking off the modern American labor movement.
In December of 1921 the women began marching and crossed through all the mines — more than 60.
The marches became violent. Many times the women would have to bring their infants with them.
Knoll said the women were deemed the “Amazon Army” by the New York Times and oftentimes the women were described, especially in newspaper articles, in military terminology. 
Knoll said the actions the women and men took to turn around the labor practices ultimately led to national social reform.
The Amazon Army is now part of Kansas history that is taught in schools across the state. There is a Miners’ Memorial in Pittsburg.
From May 11 to June 23 there will be a traveling Smithsonian exhibit stopping at the memorial, “The Way We Worked,” which highlights poor working conditions such as the coal mines.